Computational Complexity and other fun stuff in math and computer science from Lance Fortnow and Bill Gasarch

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Advising

David Molnar asks about how
to evaluate an advisor. There is no objective method to evaluate
advisors, faculty have different students to start with so one cannot directly
compare the quality of their Ph.D.s. It's easy to advise a very
intelligent hard-working student; it's advising the others that really
separates the great advisors from the good ones.

To best evaluate an advisor, ask their students—both the successful
ones and the ones that struggle. Keep in mind that an advisor's style
that works with one kind of student might not work with another so
listen to why a particular advisor is good or bad. These are
especially good questions for undergrads to ask current Ph.D.
students when the visit potential graduate schools.

Molnar also notes that he hasn't found many resources on how to be a
good advisor. We all have different approaches and one could write a
book on the topic but here are general techniques (many of
which I learned from my own advisor Michael Sipser).

Have students work on problems that interest them not just you. I like
to hand them a proceedings of a recent conference and have them skim
abstracts to find papers they enjoy. However if they stray too far
from your research interests, you will have a hard time pushing them
in the right directions. And don't work on their problems unless they
want you to.

Keep your students motivated. Meet with them on a regular
basis. Encourage students to discuss their problems and other research
questions with other students and faculty. Do your best to keep their
spirits high if they have trouble proving theorems or are not getting
their papers into conferences. Once they lose interest in theory they
won't succeed.

Feel free to have them read papers, do some refereeing and reviewing,
give talks on recent great papers. These are good skills for them to
learn. But don't abuse them too much.

Make sure they learn that selling their research is as important as
proving the theorems. Have them write the papers and make them rewrite
until the paper properly motivates the work. Make them give practice
talks before conferences and do not hold back on the criticism.

Some students will want to talk about some personal issues they
have. Listen as a friend and give some suggestions without being
condescending. But if they have a serious emotional crisis, you are
not trained for that; point them to your university counseling
services.

Once it becomes clear a student won't succeed working with you, or
won't succeed as a theorist or won't succeed in graduate work, cut
them loose. The hardest thing to do as an advisor is to tell a
student, particular one that tries hard, that they should go do
something else. It's much easier to just keep them on until they get
frustrated and quit, but you do no one any favors that way.

I'd distinguish between two worrisome sorts of students. The first sort are the ones who slowly manage to get something done but never seem enthusiastic about anything. There it's worth having a conversation in which you suggest that perhaps another advisor, another subfield, or even another career might prove more satisfying. I certainly wouldn't advocate trying to drive these students away (make it clear that you recognize that they are making some progress, and are just worried that they don't seem happy). Sometimes someone just has a morose personality type, but wouldn't change a thing. Other times someone is miserable but feels trapped, and being supportive can help them make much better decisions.

The second sort of student is the sort who is terribly enthusiastic but may be over their head. That's an awfully hard case, since it doesn't seem right to let someone spend years in a Ph.D. program with little chance of getting the sort of job they want, but you don't want to crush someone's dreams unless you're absolutely certain. I honestly have no idea what to do here. I've seen some students eventually graduate (just barely) and then fail spectacularly on the job market, but I've seen others finally manage to prove everyone wrong by pulling off the project nobody thought they could complete.